


walk in the rays of a beautiful sun

by Aqua_Artist



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Anxiety, Gen, Nonbinary Character, but still a kid, the guardians have a kid now, time for space family bonding and angst, well they're thirteen, yondu is alive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-06 15:10:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11038725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aqua_Artist/pseuds/Aqua_Artist
Summary: Nebula rescued a Terran kid and took them to the only other Terran she knows, so now the Guardians have another addition to the family. Hey, Yondu raised Peter, so it can't go that terribly? ...These are the Guardians of the Galaxy. It probably will.(work currently abandoned)





	1. new reality

Damn it all to hell, Nebula thought.

Why did she had to come across traders transporting a Terran kid? Why did she then have to rescue them? Why did they refuse to go back to Terra? Why was there only one place she could go from here?

Definitely damn it all to hell.

At least the kid was silent. Unlike Quill.

Nebula’s ship went through the final jump, the Quadrant thankfully exactly where it had been located. Gamora had not turned off the connection between Nebula’s ship and the Quadrant; whether out of hope or ignorance, Nebula did not know. Regardless, it was useful to her now.  
The ship’s comm was beeping rather incessantly, a dreadful noise. She picked it up, ignoring Quill’s confused greeting. (The man was an idiot.)

“Open the airlock,” she commanded.

“Really? We saved the galaxy together and that’s all I get?”

“Do it,” she said, a bit more forceful and a lot more irritated.

“You got a reason for coming—“ He was mercifully cut off by the voice of Gamora in the background, too unclear through the comm to make out words but presumably telling him to shut up.

“All right, come on aboard,” he said, and the comm shut off. The vacuum seal for the airlock activated on one side and deactivated on the other. She better tell the kid what was going on; they were now awake, although heavily zoned out.

“We’re here, Terran,” their rescuer announced, none too friendly. They looked up from the seat they had curled themself up in; a ship was floating in front of them, so big it took up nearly all of the screen. They tried not to be afraid, but failed miserably – it was terrifying, far larger than their abductor’s ship and with what looked like cannons everywhere. They didn’t know where they were going, they didn’t know if they could trust Nebula, they didn’t know who would be on this ship, they didn’t want to go –

Nebula watched them and their lack of visible response impassively. They were not handling this well, far too weak. Best to leave them on the ship for now and take them to the Gardens, no, Guardians, once she knew how they felt about this kid.

“Stay here for now.” She bent down and pressed a comm into the kid’s hand, forcing them to acknowledge her. They nodded, and that better have meant that they understood because she didn’t have any more time to baby them. She pulled the ship into the dock, and the seal activated behind her. As her ship’s ramp descended, she saw Gamora and Quill waiting. She walked down the ramp, now on level with both of them. A moment of silence as she met both of their eyes. She had never been good at starting conversation.

“You’re here for a reason,” Gamora said, forgoing any greetings. “What is it?”

Nebula stared her down for a moment, her mechanical hand clicking near-imperceptibly as her fingers curled inward.

“I rescued a kid,” before either of them could dismiss her, “a Terran kid.”

Peter’s eyes widened for a sharp moment -- then his eyebrows shot down and narrowed them again.

“Well, take them back to Terra! What the hell did you come to us for?” he demanded.

They do not want to go back to Terra, or I would have done that instead of coming to ask you for help!” That fact was very clear and obvious!

“Ask us for help,” Gamora prompted.

“Well. Yes.” Oh, how she hated this. “You’re a Terran,” gesturing to Quill, “and Yondu raised you, and you’re all raising that tree thing!”

“Yes, but we’re not going to just take in a kid!” Quill protested.

“Are they with you?” Gamora asked, sending Quill a look that Nebula interpreted as either be-quiet or we-will-discuss-this-later.

“Of course,” Nebula retorted. As if she would leave them somewhere without her!

“We would like to see them.”

“…Fine. Do not be threatening,” she threatened, ignoring the irony in that. As she reentered the ship, she saw the kid sitting like a statue on the bunk, comm clasped in their hand.

“Hey, kid,” she started, earning their attention. They blinked their eyes a few times, turning their head to stare at her silently. They didn’t say anything, but at least she knew she had their attention.

“The people we came to see want to meet you. Can you do that?” After a moment, they nodded, reaching a hand out. Nebula took it and helped them up to their feet. They did not move – eventually, they set down the comm and picked up their Terran device, giving a second nod. Nebula walked out of the ship, and the kid followed by their side.

They looked up at the two people waiting for them, their heart pounding and lurching. One of them looked human enough, a hard glare in his eyes and a red leather jacket worn with authority. The other was… alien, very very alien, green skin and purple ombre hair, stood like she could kill anyone in the room with only a moment’s notice. Bad bad bad bad bad, their brain blasted at them, and yes, they knew that, this was bad and they couldn’t quite breathe and –

– there was Nebula, hand on their shoulder, “breathe,” breathe in, breathe out, in, out, in out. Okay, they could breathe now, okay, things were slowing down, they could think again, they could hear her voice clearer. Okay.

“You alright, kid?” she asked. They nodded – oh, yeah, they should probably say something.

“Yes,” after biting their lip, “sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she said, more reassuring then passive-aggressive. That was nice. Nebula turned to face the other alien and the maybe-alien, glaring them down as if daring them to say anything. They smiled a bit at that, even though their heart was still racing.

“Uh. Hello there,” the maybe-alien said.

“Hello,” they said back, and, before they could think it through, “are you from Earth?”

“Terra,” Nebula corrected them.

“Right. Terra.”

He looked at them curiously, and they knew that look. He was deciding what to think about them. God, that look was terrifying. But then it vanished, and he looked… almost kindly?

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m from Terra.” He was! He was he was he was, and they grinned without fear. They were not alone out here! “The name’s Quill,” with a wink, “Peter Quill.” They both laughed at that, leaving the two aliens very out of the loop.

“What’s your name?” Peter asked them, and. Name. Their name. Don’t give the answer that just appeared, don’t say it. That is not your name, they thought; you’re free now, no one knows you, you own your own name.

They stood there in silence.

Everyone was looking expectantly at them.

“Varien.”

Oh. Okay. They did it. That sounded right. That was right. That was their name now. They – Varien left out a nervous laugh. No one would even ever have to know that they had a different birth name!

“Nice to meet you, Varien! Welcome to space.” That... hearing their name sounded really nice. Yeah, space was okay. They could handle this.

“Can we have a moment?” the green alien asked, speaking for the first time. Varien nodded, still far too intimidated to even consider denying her, and went back on Nebula’s ship. All alone, without any way of knowing what they were saying about them, was bad, and there was anxiety. Fumbling, they managed to turn on their phone and grab their headphones, choosing something from her music and letting it wash out their anxiety.

 

Outside, Nebula stood with Gamora and Quill, silence having fallen once again. Yet it was not one of tension, strangely. Quill was still staring at the entrance to the ship, where Varien had disappeared, miraculously and perfectly quiet and serene.

“We’re taking them in,” Gamora announced. Had she and Quill partaken in some silent communication?

“What? No, no we’re not,” Quill protested. Clearly they had not, then.

“Yes, we are. I know you hate being reminded of Terra, but they need us—”

“They don’t need—”

Quill, would you let me finish? The way you interacted with them—”

“I don’t know what you—”

“Peter. We can not turn them away.”

“Yeah. I know. Space castoff family and everything.” He sighed at that, defeated. “We need to at least get everyone down here first.”

“I need to. Go let Varien know,” Nebula said with a start, making her way up the ramp.

“Wait.”

“What?” Nebula stopped at her sister’s insistence, turning back.

“Are you going to leave?” The question was asked factually; Nebula knew she had already prepared for the answer.

“I’m not going to dump a kid on you and run away,” she replied with a slight smirk. Gamora raised her eyebrows at her in pleasant and bewildered surprise, but she simply turned away and entered the ship. It had become her home as she had travelled the galaxy in search of some permanent one. In the end, it had only taken her back to where it had come from. She was not excited for the prospect of living with the Guardians, well aware of her loner status, but she refused to leave the kid behind, and the only ones who could take care of them were the Guardians, so that settled the matter.

“Hey. Varien,” Nebula said, met with no response, but that was unsurprising. On the bunk, they were no longer in the curled position they had been in all flight, but instead lying back in a relaxed position, their Terran device resting in their lap and a head device covering their ears.

“Varien,” she repeated, loud enough to override the device. They opened their eyes, pulling down the head device and shuffling into a sitting position.

“Yeah,” they replied, palpably nervous.

“You are going to stay,” she started – they relaxed at that, a light smile returning to their face. Nebula was fond of it. Strange. “First, you will have to meet everyone. They are an odd and powerful group. Do not be intimidated by them.”

“O-okay. I can do that,” they confirmed, someone shakily. “…Thank you.”

“You do not have to,” Nebula told them.

“No, I… you rescued me, and you didn’t take me back, and you took me to another human – Terran. And space is… scary. Yeah.”

“You are welcome, then,” Nebula said, stilted and awkward. She reached out and set her metal hand over one of Varien’s.

A moment of peace.

Then outside the ship became very, very loud. Most probably because of yelling.

“Give them time. They yell at each other a great deal,” Nebula told them, noticing how frightened they looked by the noise.

“Oh. Okay. Sorry for getting anxious—”

“Do not,” Nebula cut them off. She hated apologizing; it was a waste.

“…Okay,” they repeated. “Okay.” They were in space now. That was okay. That was okay. They were okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading!! the idea of the guardians adopting a human kid and bonding as a big space family refused to leave me be, so now this is a thing? also wow i really love nebula, and yondu is alive because he'll be great for this story and i want him to be. the next chapter should be up in a couple of days. kudos and comments appreciated!


	2. introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Guardians are incapable of arriving all at once, and Varien freaks out, both in the anxious way and in the excited way.

“A kid, Quill? Really? What the hell are you thinking?” Rocket threw his hands out in the air in what he thought was deserved anger. He had been the first down to the bay, and seeing Nebula’s ship was both weird and bad enough, but apparently there was a Terran on it? Yes, they had let Mantis stay with them, and the ravagers, but that was different, and they couldn’t just adopt a Terran because Quill felt like it!

“Gamora was the one who made the decision!” Peter informed him.

“That’s not any better! You’re not even from the same planet!” Rocket yelled, turning his frustration to her. She looked completely unconcerned, he hated how she did that when he was yelling his heart out. Because she was being an idiot!

“I am Groot,” Groot himself said from behind him. Someone like Quill? I want to see! Well, that was great! The next person to arrive had to be on their side. Groot ran over to Rocket’s side, and was he taller than him now? Damn it, he had grown used to being the taller one.

“You can, soon,” replied Gamora, with the sweet voice that was brought out by Groot, and only Groot. “We have to discuss this first.”

“Yes, we do need to discuss this! You all seem to have made the decision that we’re keeping them!” Rocket cut in.

“Not without everyone’s agreement,” Quill clarified.

“Well then, I don’t agree!”

“What have you called a meeting for?” Drax asked, entering the room with Mantis cautiously at his side. “You just seem to be arguing.”

“Nebula has rescued a young Terran, and has come to us so that we would take them in,” Gamora explained. They were going to have to go through this again when Yondu and Kraglin got here, weren’t they? This was getting old in addition to already being stupid and frustrating as hell.

“That is wonderful news!” Drax explained. “As long as they are not as idiotic as Quill.”

“Thanks, buddy,” Peter said, with a tired acceptance.

“So no one has a problem with this?” Rocket asked into the air.

“I am Groot.” They need a home, Groot said, tugging at Rocket’s arm. Rocket looked up at him, and… damn it, he couldn’t argue against that. Even though it was an utterly terrible idea for the Terran’s home to be with them.

“…Fine. We can keep the kid for now. Doesn’t mean I like it,” Rocket said, crossing his arms to prove that he would not be excited about this.

“What’s going on here?” Yondu drawled, walking into the room and noting that everyone (except Kraglin, left to man the bridge) had already assembled. He slipped his hands into the pockets of his jacket and lifted his head up at Peter, in expectance of an explanation.

“How d’you feel about raising another Terran?” Peter fired back at him, wearing a cocky grin. Huh, so that’s what they were arguing about? Well, he sure as hell wasn’t gonna turn them away.

“Things can’t go any worse than they did with you!” Yondu teased, chuckling to himself.

“I’ll let Nebula know she can bring them out,” Peter said. “They haven’t been off Terra long, so they’re intimidated to hell and back. Try not to be yourselves? Just for now.” With that unhelpful advice, he turned to the ship, walked up a couple steps, and yelled a quick “hey!” to the people inside.

Varien had sat in complete silence with Nebula through the duration of the outside conversation; it had been a relief to hear the end of the yelling, but with this they felt resurgent nausea. They were going to step outside and meet aliens. Right. A lot of aliens. Aliens who they’d be living with. This was fine and no no no never mind this was not fine at all– they felt the cool metal of Nebula’s hand shift over theirs. They looked to her, strong and scary and intimidating as hell. And she was on their side. Okay.

“I should go meet them, then,” they said, with shaky and forced confidence. They stood, and, with slow and measured steps, made their way down the ramp.

Assembled in front of the ship were – a lot of people. Aliens. There was no room for doubt about that. Varien knew they weren’t a threat, but they were still. Well. Terrifying.   
There was a blue man with a craggled appearance and a metal headpiece jutting out of the top of his skull; an inhumanly muscled man with ornately detailed markings (tattoos?) standing out against stone green skin; a woman with eyes a size too large to look at comfortably and antenna sprouting from her hairline; a humanoid tree (?); the they had met earlier; and. And. Was that. What the hell.

Was that a raccoon?

They giggled a bit, an awkward and nervous and compulsive thing, because of everything they had prepared themselves for since being taken into space, they had not prepared for a raccoon.

“Hey, what are you laughing at?” the raccoon accused, and they snapped into silence. This was a bad first impression, oh no, oh no…

“I’m sorry,” they muttered, “so sorry…”

“It’s just that he’s a raccoon?” Peter finished for them, amused.

“Well, yes,” they admitted, and Peter laughed, loud and not bothering to hide it.

“Hey. Hey! What is the deal with Terrans? I. Am not a raccoon!”

“Right, right, sorry,” Varien said, still muttering over themselves but a little less nervous in knowing that the other human did the same thing. “You just. Look a lot like one.”

“Well, I ain’t one. The name’s Rocket.”

“Um. Hello, Rocket. I’m Varien,” they said, still shaky in saying their name. In a compulsive attempt at manners, they stuck their right hand out in front of him.

He stared them down and did absolutely nothing else.

“Right,” they breathed out, pulling their hand back and wiping it back and forth across the side of their pants. Four seconds in and they were offending aliens left and right, was there anything they couldn’t mess up? Clearly not! What the hell were they doing here?

“Apologies for not introducing myself before,” the green-and-ombre lady said, after flicking a quick glare over at Rocket. “I am Gamora.”

“Gamora,” Varien repeated back, lost in the resulting silence. This was the part in introductions where you told the other person your name, but she already knew their name, so they had nothing to say. They felt the weight of everyone’s focus on them, the odd one, the new arrival, the one who wasn’t supposed to be here – awful, it was awful.

“And I am Drax!” the tattooed man exclaimed, either purposefully trying to end the tension or completely failing to pick up on it. Varien couldn’t be sure – or maybe it was for some other completely different reason, they didn’t know alien psychology. However, seeing how excited he looked, they felt fairly confident in deciding that he had been unaware. He was strong, which… was a bit scary, but he at least seemed nice. People weren’t really ever excited to meet them.

“Hello, Drax,” they said to him. “…Thank you for having me on board.”

“What, I don’t get thanked?” Rocket accused. Varien winced – oh, they shouldn’t have done that, they need to apologize –

“I am Groot,” the tree humanoid said before they could manage to say anything comprehensible.

“Oh. Uh. Hello, Groot,” Varien replied.

“I am Groot,” Groot repeated.

“Um. Yes?” they asked. “Did I mess up the pronunciation, or, oh I am so sorry…”

“I am Groot,” he said once more.

“He said he was talking to me, not you, but he’s still glad to meet you, and he is Groot,” Rocket told them – translated? 

“Oh. Okay, it’s like an alien language thing?” they guessed. It wasn’t that strange. Just a little confusing. The other aliens were watching the exchange with mirth in their eyes – objectively, this was probably quite funny, even if they only felt the light embarrassment of misunderstanding.

“Yeah. Spend enough time around him, and you start to understand,” Rocket told them, and they nodded in acknowledgement, glad to have a non-terrible or at least non-aggressive interaction with him. They felt so weak and defenseless, and it would be really really bad if everyone didn’t like them, which was probably going to happen…

“Hello, I am Mantis,” the antenna lady said, continuing the introductions. She extended her hand out, copying the move Varien had done to Rocket, but when Varien reached her hand out, she did not shake it. A light humming noise caught Varien’s attention, and as they looked up, they saw the tips of her antenna glowing. All the anxiety they had inside them… seemed to ease away. They had the sense that Mantis had done that, but didn’t really mind. It was nice.

“Thank you, Mantis,” they said, with a gentle voice barely audible. Mantis nodded at her with a semi-awkward (or maybe just alien?) smile, and they dropped their hand. 

There was only one person left in the room to meet, the one who had intimidated them most upon exiting the ship. He smiled with cracked teeth, a smile that threatened danger, down at them. The ease granted to them by Mantis left them far faster than they would have liked; their hands were probably trembling, and oh, hell, there wasn’t really anything they could do about that.

“Hey there, kid,” he said, leaning down to their height and in a bit. They really wanted to lean away, but found themself frozen, utterly unable to.

“Name’s Yondu. Welcome aboard, ‘n don’t be too much of a bother.” He reached out, tousled their hair a bit, and stood back up. They frowned a bit at that, but it was just a weird personal space violation, nothing too bad. He didn’t seem… mean, at least. Just scary to hell and back.

“Oh, uh, okay, I’ll try my best not to,” they answered him – Yondu. There were a lot of names now, and they really, really hoped that they didn’t mess any of them up. They looked up and around at everyone; the green woman was Gamora, the human was Peter, the not-raccoon was Rocket, the tree was very definitely Groot, the tattooed man was … uh, some one-syllable thing that sounded very alien, Draz, no, Drax; the bug lady had a bug name, Mantis, and the blue man was Yondu. They had little frame of reference for aliens, didn’t know if this group was particularly strange or scary, but… Varien was quite glad that they would be on their side nonetheless.

“Oh, man,” they said, laughing a bit to themself, “I really am in space, I mean, this is…” What was it? They didn’t really know. Weird? Bizarre? Incredible? Minus how terrible the abduction was and how scary everything seemed, actually pretty cool?

“Space isn’t weird, you Terrans are the weird ones for being all closed off,” Rocket told them, matched with what was probably (?) an agreement from Groot. 

“Well, I mean, our first experience with space wasn’t really great, so don’t blame us too much,” they defended, quite awkward and unsure of themself but the need to defend their old home pushing them to say something.

“What are you talking about?” Peter asked. “We figured out how to land on the moon. That was freaking awesome!”

Um. Uh. What? Varien bit on their bottom lip, feeling a pit in their stomach, because they had thought he knew and now they had gotten themself into something they didn’t want to but it was too late because they needed to give some explanation.

“When was the last time you were on Earth – Terra?” they asked him, ever so cautious.

“1988,” he said, staring them down with a look in his eyes that Varien guessed meant he hadn’t ever thought about what Earth was like now, having continued on without him, and – oh. 1988? Damn, that was a long time ago! He didn’t even have the internet! They definitely needed to catch him up with everything else that had happened on Earth later.

“Okay. You… have been gone for a long time, and you don’t know what I was talking about, so. I should tell you.” They should, but they didn’t want to insult them, because everyone’s view on the invasion on Earth was pretty solidly anti-alien, so.

“Yes, you should,” he told them, his impatience growing obvious. Right.

“…Well. A few years back, there was this wormhole to space opened up right above Manhattan, and the aliens came through it to invade us. It was, well. Bad. But there was this group,” with a pang then, they missed the good days of the early Avengers so much, “a group of superheroes? Really powerful fighters. Who stopped them and saved Earth. They’re called the Avengers.” Peter’s reaction to that was completely unreadable – should they had told him, did he even care about Earth anymore, would he be upset that humans had fought the aliens?

Then Drax started laughing, like he had just heard the world’s (universe’s?) best and most hilarious joke.

“Why are they called the Avengers?” he asked Varien, with great humor. “They are not avenging anything! They are protecting something! Our name is far better.”

“Wait – are you superheroes?” Oh my god. Oh my god. That was really cool but also they were freaking out! Even more then they had been before! They were making an idiot of themself! But this was also really cool and oh my god how had they never considered there would be space superheroes? And how did Nebula know them, they were so lucky! (Except for having been abducted; that was maximum unluckiness. Maybe things just balanced out.)

“No one’s ever called us that, but I like the sound of it,” Peter said, nodding as if imagining the title next to his name. Heh. Peter Quill was a terrible superhero name, it was just a normal name – but they wouldn’t tell him that.

“So – so I’m with the space Avengers?” they asked for clarification.

“No!” Rocket declared. “The Avengers are clearly Terran us!”

“Do you have a superhero team name? Because otherwise you sort of are the space Avengers.”

“We are not the space Avengers,” Peter said, with dramatic gravitas (this whole situation was so surreal). “We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy.”

The Guardians of the Galaxy. Wow.

“That is so much cooler than the Avengers,” they breathed out in awe.

“Good,” Rocket said. “You’re allowed to stay.”

Varien looked at the assembly of aliens. They were scary strong, but not because they were a danger – because they were superheroes. Wow. Varien really had to make sure they didn’t mess this up.

“…Thank you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! this was really fun to write, and i'm glad everyone got to meet varien -- except for kraglin, poor guy, but he'll get his chance later. the next chapter should be out sometime this weekend. kudos and feedback are appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!! the idea of the guardians adopting a human kid and bonding as a big space family refused to leave me be, so now this is a thing? also wow i really love nebula, and yondu is alive because he'll be great for this story and i want him to be. the next chapter should be up in a couple of days. kudos and comments appreciated!


End file.
